The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine has said that it wants to obtain visa free travel with European Union countries from January 1, 2015, but added that a lot in this issue depends on the internal procedures of the European Union.
“I’m not that kind of person for setting definite terms, this issue doesn’t fully depend on Ukraine, since the EU itself has complicated and rather long internal procedures,” first Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Natalia Halibarenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on June 26.
She pointed that the European Union for the final decision needs to see corresponding reports from expert missions that will assess the implementation by Ukraine of the action plan on visa regime liberalization, then adopt a technical decision, and finally take a political decision.
Halibarenko gave an example that it took almost a month from the adoption of a recent decision by the European Commission on its estimation of Ukraine’s actions on visa free travel with the EU for the union to back the decision at the political level.
“In our realities it is a long period if we set a target for visa free travel to be introduced in half a year,” she said.
Halibarenko said that in September and October two expert missions would visit Ukraine and provide recommendations on how Ukraine can more quickly and better complete the second phase of the visa liberalization action plan.
“We set ourselves a tough six-month term, but it doesn’t mean that from January 1, 2015, if even we fulfill everything, we’ll have a visa free regime,” she said.
